Scholarly record

TEAM DEVELOPMENT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN THE MULTICULTURAL TEAM – INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE PROJECT EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN MULTICULTURAL TEAMS

Krystyna Heinz

Abstract

In the period of globalization, the question of effective communication between people of different nations is essential to ensure that all parties emerge with the same understanding. Without the right approach, cultural differences can greatly affect governments, businesses, organisations and individuals. Intercultural communication is no longer an option, but a necessity; therefore there is a need to integrate intercultural communication in the university programmes and to give students the opportunity to develop their cross-cultural communication and international business communication skills through both theory and practice and to confront them to the reality of a professional environment. Professionals in multicultural corporations usually work in a team context and have to be familiar with terms such as team player, team skills, team building, and team performance that relate to the ability to cooperate with people in teams aiming at accomplishing professional projects, therefore effective communication within multicultural teams is a skill which is increasingly sought after by European companies and institutions. In global and intercultural world people must understand how people act in international, national, and local businesses. Cultures are different in organizations and if a company wants to do business internationally, it needs to have knowledge related to diverse management process. However, for example corporate Europe shares some common rules, like understanding the impact of risks, uncertainties, and conflicts, striving for steady growth, open boundaries, and cosmopolitan society. Comparative and so called intercultural studies are becoming increasingly more important in the global business environment and their results can be used in practical life. The valuable study of cultures by G.Hofstede and E.T.Hall have led to the culture dimensions, such as individualism versus collectivism, monochrony versus polychrony, masculinity versus femininity, high power distance versus low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance versus low uncertainty avoidance high context versus low context, high contact versus low contact, etc., whose ignorance can have a negative impact on social cohesion of the team. The article firstly attempts to summarize the most important views related to the theoretical background of multicultural team building and working in the specific conditions of the beginning of the 21st century, next presents advantages and disadvantages of multicultural teams, management of such teams, including conflict management, and finally evaluates working in multicultural teams within the project The Intensive Programme Effective Communication in Multicultural Teams approved in 2011 and held in March 2013 involves six higher education institutions which develop a common course module to be recognised in each of the curricula of the partner institutions - Universite Jean Monnet de Saint-Etienne in France (the coordinator), Technische Hochschule Wildau in Germany, Fachhochschule Salzburg GmbH in Austria, University of Joensuu in Finland, The University of Tartu in Estonia, and School of Business Administration in Karvina, Silesian University in Opava, in the Czech Republic.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2014/B11/S3.116

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